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COVID-19 Federal Responses: Thursday, March 4, 2021

COVID-19 Federal Responses: Thursday, March 4, 2021

Congress

  • The Senate is set to vote on the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, the American Rescue Plan. This Democrat-led bill is not expected to receive any Republican support. Democrats are using the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill with a simple majority in the Senate without Republican support. If all 50 Democrats support the bill and all 50 Republicans oppose the bill, Vice President Kamala Harris will break a tie in favor of Democrats.
    • The Senate is making changes to the House-passed version of the bill. If passed by the Senate, the bill would go back to the House for a vote on the updated version.

White House and Federal Agencies

Economy, Vaccines, Testing and Treatment

  • President Biden expects to have enough vaccine doses for every American adult by the end of May. He wants to prioritize vaccinating teachers so that schools can re-open.
  • The Federal Government helped broker an agreement between Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Merck to have Merck help manufacture J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine to expedite production of the vaccine.
  • The Federal Government is beginning a new promotional campaign to encourage COVID-19 vaccination.

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